Xi woke up to white noise and bass pounding through his aching body. Groggily he tried to open his eyes only to be blinded by fluorescent lights. He groaned and tried to roll over but a sharp yank on his wrist sent shocks of pain up through his shoulder and stopped him. Xi yelped in pain and slowly angled his head and blinked through the blurriness to see what had happened.
His hand was cuffed to a table.
‘Huh?’
Xi tried to lift his hand but it barely budged. He tried slipping his hand through the cuff but that only scrapped up his wrist more. His head felt like lead but he rolled it over to his other side and found his other hand cuffed as well. He didn’t dare try to lift his head so he tried to kick his feet only to find them cuffed as well.
‘What is going on?’
Xi was starting to panic now. Where was he? Why was he chained up? Why couldn’t he remember anything?
The sound of bass grew exponentially as two figures burst open the door and walked in. They looked like white blobs to Xi at first until they approached the table and one grabbed his chin, pushing his face around. Xi grit his teeth as his head throbbed in pain and bit back the bile that threatened to come up. The two figures started talking but he couldn’t make out any words. He wasn’t sure if they were speaking another language or if something had happened to his ears. He was leaning towards the latter, his ears felt like they were full of cotton and he was pretty sure his right ear was bleeding. Now that the figures were closer Xi could make out thick, white fur coats and mittens as they gestured wildy to each other.
‘What the- its… August?’ Who the hell wears fur in August?
The figures left the room and Xi could hear a lock click into place behind them. He tried to take some deep breaths, tried to keep himself from panicking. When he opened his eyes again things were a little more in focus, and he could turn his head without wanting to throw up.
At least until he turned to the right and saw a body lying on the ground staring back at him with glassy eyes.
“Mmfh!” Xi choked as the bile came back up.
‘FUCK. That’s a body. THAT’S A BODY. Fuck what the hell.’
The body was a young woman, early thirties maybe with straw blonde hair. She was sprawled on the floor like a chew toy, clothes torn and limbs bent at odd angles. Blood was already pooled at the bottom of her body, her fingertips black and her face ashen. There was dried blood underneath her stomach and caked to her hands. Her right arm was outstretched, reaching in vain towards Xi.
‘Oh go oh god oh god.’ She couldn’t be reaching for him, he decided, and rolled his head to the other side. Burnt into the walls and floor on the other side of the room were spell circles, some still glowing like embers and others covered in piles of burnt feathers and cloth.
The circles were foreign. Xi was no expert but he knew those weren’t summoning circles. But what else could they be? There was no other reason for a circle that large.
Xi started to panic again. He had pieces but nothing was adding up. Weird people in fur, a dead body, smoldering circles and burnt feathers???
‘Wait a minute...’
He remembers, in the frenzied sort of way one remembers the most useless things when they’re about to die, of watching the news while eating dinner with his parents last Saturday. Except this wasn’t useless at all because the news had been talking about the latest body found in a string of murders tied to an extremist cult called “The Tundra”. Every month without fail a body turned up on the west side lying in a puddle of water and a single stab through the chest but completely devoid of blood. The cult was obsessed with the idea of summoning powerful ice spirits despite living in humid California, and the bodies were assumed to be sacrifices in failed summoning attempts.
‘Oh my god, an ice-themed cult would wear fur and mittens in summer.’ Xi thought as everything started to make sickening sense. ‘Those aren’t summoning circles, those are binding circles! The energy put off by a contract breaking with the summoner dying and the spirit trapped on this plan would be enormous.’
He was starting to hyperventilate now. ‘Oh god. Oh god oh god I’m next. I’M NEXT.’
“Diànyā!” He shouts through gasps and a burning throat. Despite knowing that his partner was most likely bound up somewhere too. “DIÁNYÃ!”
Nothing.
Xi’s head hit the table and he bit back a sob. This was it wasn’t it. When suddenly a cloud of blue sparks erupted above his head and a mass of blue feathers buried itself in the juncture of his neck and started pecking and nuzzling him furiously.
“Diànyā! My beautiful, beautiful Diànyā!” He cried. The blue hawk cawed at him in distress and tried to gnaw, peck and claw its way through his bindings to no avail.
“Diànyā,” He said. “Diànyā I need you to hide.”
Diànyā whipped around and glared at him about how bad an idea that was.
“Diànyā I need you to hide,” he tried again. “You can’t break through those.” Diànyā cawed indignantly. Xi swallowed. “You can’t break through those, but you can get me out.”
Because Diànyā, while it mostly spent its days lounging in his office or charging his phone while at work, was capable of letting out 250 amps of electricity for short periods of time. More than enough to knock out or kill two unsuspecting cultists. So Diànyā hide itself between planes and waited.
Not five minutes later the two figures returned, suspiciously late to have been drawn by the noise but Xi wasn’t picky at this point. They argued with each other in a language he definitely didn’t know before Cultist 1 poked harsly at a bruise on his side and Cultist 2 began undoing the cuffs. Cultist 1 jabbed at the bruises on Xi’s side just in case he started getting ideas while Cultist 2 finished freeing him. Cultist 1 barked something at him, but as soon as his limbs were free Diànyā burst out with a furious screech and a storm of sparks that blinded the room.
When Xi uncovered his eyes the cultists were sizzling on the floor, their skin burst in places and burnt black in others. He covered his nose from the awful smell and unsteadily eased himself off of the table.
“We don’t have much time,” he told Diànyā, who perched protectively on his shoulder. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
His hand was cuffed to a table.
‘Huh?’
Xi tried to lift his hand but it barely budged. He tried slipping his hand through the cuff but that only scrapped up his wrist more. His head felt like lead but he rolled it over to his other side and found his other hand cuffed as well. He didn’t dare try to lift his head so he tried to kick his feet only to find them cuffed as well.
‘What is going on?’
Xi was starting to panic now. Where was he? Why was he chained up? Why couldn’t he remember anything?
The sound of bass grew exponentially as two figures burst open the door and walked in. They looked like white blobs to Xi at first until they approached the table and one grabbed his chin, pushing his face around. Xi grit his teeth as his head throbbed in pain and bit back the bile that threatened to come up. The two figures started talking but he couldn’t make out any words. He wasn’t sure if they were speaking another language or if something had happened to his ears. He was leaning towards the latter, his ears felt like they were full of cotton and he was pretty sure his right ear was bleeding. Now that the figures were closer Xi could make out thick, white fur coats and mittens as they gestured wildy to each other.
‘What the- its… August?’ Who the hell wears fur in August?
The figures left the room and Xi could hear a lock click into place behind them. He tried to take some deep breaths, tried to keep himself from panicking. When he opened his eyes again things were a little more in focus, and he could turn his head without wanting to throw up.
At least until he turned to the right and saw a body lying on the ground staring back at him with glassy eyes.
“Mmfh!” Xi choked as the bile came back up.
‘FUCK. That’s a body. THAT’S A BODY. Fuck what the hell.’
The body was a young woman, early thirties maybe with straw blonde hair. She was sprawled on the floor like a chew toy, clothes torn and limbs bent at odd angles. Blood was already pooled at the bottom of her body, her fingertips black and her face ashen. There was dried blood underneath her stomach and caked to her hands. Her right arm was outstretched, reaching in vain towards Xi.
‘Oh go oh god oh god.’ She couldn’t be reaching for him, he decided, and rolled his head to the other side. Burnt into the walls and floor on the other side of the room were spell circles, some still glowing like embers and others covered in piles of burnt feathers and cloth.
The circles were foreign. Xi was no expert but he knew those weren’t summoning circles. But what else could they be? There was no other reason for a circle that large.
Xi started to panic again. He had pieces but nothing was adding up. Weird people in fur, a dead body, smoldering circles and burnt feathers???
‘Wait a minute...’
He remembers, in the frenzied sort of way one remembers the most useless things when they’re about to die, of watching the news while eating dinner with his parents last Saturday. Except this wasn’t useless at all because the news had been talking about the latest body found in a string of murders tied to an extremist cult called “The Tundra”. Every month without fail a body turned up on the west side lying in a puddle of water and a single stab through the chest but completely devoid of blood. The cult was obsessed with the idea of summoning powerful ice spirits despite living in humid California, and the bodies were assumed to be sacrifices in failed summoning attempts.
‘Oh my god, an ice-themed cult would wear fur and mittens in summer.’ Xi thought as everything started to make sickening sense. ‘Those aren’t summoning circles, those are binding circles! The energy put off by a contract breaking with the summoner dying and the spirit trapped on this plan would be enormous.’
He was starting to hyperventilate now.
‘Oh god. Oh god oh god I’m next. I’M NEXT.’
“Diànyā!” He shouts through gasps and a burning throat. Despite knowing that his partner was most likely bound up somewhere too. “DIÁNYÃ!”
Nothing.
Xi’s head hit the table and he bit back a sob. This was it wasn’t it. When suddenly a cloud of blue sparks erupted above his head and a mass of blue feathers buried itself in the juncture of his neck and started pecking and nuzzling him furiously.
“Diànyā! My beautiful, beautiful Diànyā!” He cried. The blue hawk cawed at him in distress and tried to gnaw, peck and claw its way through his bindings to no avail.
“Diànyā,” He said. “Diànyā I need you to hide.”
Diànyā whipped around and glared at him about how bad an idea that was.
“Diànyā I need you to hide,” he tried again. “You can’t break through those.” Diànyā cawed indignantly. Xi swallowed. “You can’t break through those, but you can get me out.”
Because Diànyā, while it mostly spent its days lounging in his office or charging his phone while at work, was capable of letting out 250 amps of electricity for short periods of time. More than enough to knock out or kill two unsuspecting cultists. So Diànyā hide itself between planes and waited.
Not five minutes later the two figures returned, suspiciously late to have been drawn by the noise but Xi wasn’t picky at this point. They argued with each other in a language he definitely didn’t know before Cultist 1 poked harsly at a bruise on his side and Cultist 2 began undoing the cuffs. Cultist 1 jabbed at the bruises on Xi’s side just in case he started getting ideas while Cultist 2 finished freeing him. Cultist 1 barked something at him, but as soon as his limbs were free Diànyā burst out with a furious screech and a storm of sparks that blinded the room.
When Xi uncovered his eyes the cultists were sizzling on the floor, their skin burst in places and burnt black in others. He covered his nose from the awful smell and unsteadily eased himself off of the table.
“We don’t have much time,” he told Diànyā, who perched protectively on his shoulder. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”